{"id":465123,"date":"2026-03-09T01:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465123\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T01:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:43:10","slug":"liverpool-stars-ghostly-cameo-appearance-in-call-the-midwifes-final-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465123\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool star’s ghostly cameo appearance in Call The Midwife’s final episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final ever episode of Call The Midwife aired this evening\"Call<\/p>\n

Familiar faces returned to Poplar for season 15(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

The TV executives behind Call the Midwife have shared their delight at secretly appearing in tonight\u2019s series finale, alongside returning fan favourite Pam Ferris. Liverpool-born writer and creator Heidi Thomas made a brief cameo as a ghostly nun gliding behind Ferris, who reprised her role as the late Sister Evangelina after a decade away, returning to guide her friend Sister Monica Joan into the afterlife.<\/p>\n

Executive producer Pippa Harris, now Dame Pippa Harris, also appeared on screen as a mourner attending a funeral at St Oswald\u2019s church. Pam, 77, last appeared in the BBC<\/a> drama in 2016, when her beloved character died unexpectedly in the final episode of the fifth series. In tonight\u2019s emotional scenes, she returned to offer comfort and guidance during her old friend\u2019s final moments.<\/p>\n

Viewers of the popular Call the Midwife on BBC One had already suspected that Sister Monica Joan\u2019s time at Nonnatus House was nearing its end. In recent weeks, the character was diagnosed with kidney failure, and Doctor Turner warned that his elderly patient did \u201cnot have long left,\u201d reports the Mirror.<\/a><\/p>\n

In tonight’s series 15 finale, the 99-year-old nun, played by Judy Parfitt,<\/a> who is 90, was given a magnificent send off ahead of the drama taking a break from the screen to allow for the making of a prequel series, set during the war, and for a movie, based in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Heidi<\/p>\n

Heidi Thomas was awarded an OBE for services to drama(Image: Isabel Infantes\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

On screen, as Sister Monica Joan was led out of the room and away from her mortal body on the bed, other nuns followed. One of them was Heidi, who has been writing the series since it launched in 2012. She told the Mirror<\/a> that it felt appropriate to join in with the action because of the series now being off screen for at least a couple of years.<\/p>\n

“Throughout our 15 years on air, I have always said I would appear in the final episode, dressed as a nun – and so I did, even though I was basically a ghost and see-through,\u201d Heidi told the Mirror. \u201cI thought I looked quite good in a wimple, but when my husband (Stephen McGann, who plays Dr Turner) saw me he went white, and said I was the double of the nun who taught him sex education when he was at school.”<\/p>\n

Pippa, who first came up with the idea of adapting Jennifer Worth\u2019s memoir for television, said she\u2019d also long harboured a desire to put in an appearance. \u201cOver the years I\u2019ve always thought that one day I\u2019d like to actually appear in Call the Midwife, just fleetingly, in the background, but the timing was never right,\u201d she explained. “Then when I realised that this crucial sequence was about to be shot, and I\u2019d get the chance to put on full mourning attire, it was too good an opportunity to miss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Call<\/p>\n

Familiar faces returned to Poplar for season 15(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

Ferris, 77, made the decision to leave the series after production moved to a new set in Surrey, which was further for her to travel. Speaking soon after her exit, she said: \u201cMaking the decision to leave Call the Midwife was a wrench but because I then became involved with telling the story to the best of my ability, there was no time to feel regret. I\u2019ll miss my friends on set \u2014 in front of and behind the camera \u2014 and I\u2019ll miss my habit, which is so well-worn and comfortable. But I shan\u2019t miss my wimple.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are big changes ahead with the nuns no longer allowed to perform midwifery duties in Poplar, now planning new missions abroad. Other big changes in the episode included nurse Trixie Aylward taking a controlling stake in private maternity facility the Lady Emily, Cyril and Rosalind getting married ahead of their baby arriving despite not having the blessing of her parents and nurse Joyce Highland landing a job as a sister at St Cuthbert\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n

A three-part prequel of Call the Midwife, featuring younger versions of Pam\u2019s character Sister Evangelina, Judy\u2019s Sister Monica Joan and Jenny Agutter\u2019<\/a>s Sister Julienne is expected to launch on Christmas<\/a> Day. No casting has yet been announced.<\/p>\n

Filming on the movie, featuring all of the current cast and starring Poplar and Australia, is expected to start next year, set in the year 1972. Heidi has said series 16, likely to be based around a new community hospital, will return to BBC1 in due course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final ever episode of Call The Midwife aired this evening Familiar faces returned to Poplar for season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[243,96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-465123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bbc","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}